FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) – The Christmas season arrived and Tedy Bruschi thought again about his trials of 2005.

A stroke. Uncertainty about when – if ever – he would play again. His gradual progress to walk normally and regain his strength and then agonizing over when to return to a sport where he collides with 300-pound opponents.

“With the new year turning,” he said Thursday, “and the holidays, you have time to reflect. Sometimes in life you’ve got to get through certain things and there are tough obstacles to overcome and this was one in my life. And I’m happy to be able to stand here in front of you now and say, It was overcome and I’m back to being who I am.”‘

The Bruschi standing before reporters was still the defensive leader of the two-time defending champion New England Patriots. He also shared a new title – The Associated Press Comeback Player of the Year.

He and wide receiver Steve Smith of Carolina received 18 votes each from a nationwide panel of 50 sports writers and broadcasters who cover the NFL. Smith led the NFL in most receiving categories after missing almost all of the 2004 season with a broken left leg.

“I think Steve would agree that it’s been a long road for him and me to get back,” Bruschi said. “To be recognized for it is an honor and you don’t want to get this type of award every year.”

Bruschi played nine games this season and is still going. Despite a left calf injury, he’s expected to play in Saturday night’s wild-card playoff game against the Jacksonville Jaguars in Foxborough.

Last Feb. 6, he won his third Super Bowl in four years, then played in the first Pro Bowl on Feb. 13. On Feb. 16, he was hospitalized after experiencing numbness in his left arm and left leg and blurry vision and was diagnosed with a mild stroke. Surgery to repair a hole in his heart followed and, as he got better, he kept working out and attending meetings with teammates.

Still, in September, he said he wouldn’t play this season. But he kept improving, was cleared by doctors and decided to give it a try.

So on Oct. 30, Bruschi was back at inside linebacker before home fans in a 21-16 win over the Buffalo Bills.

“To not give it a shot was something that would have eaten me up five, 10 years down the road,” he said. “So I was like, Let’s just do it now and not wait because I’ve been cleared to do it.”‘

The Patriots were 3-3, then went 7-2 with Bruschi before the calf injury kept him out of a 28-26 loss to Miami to end the regular season.

He finished fifth on the Patriots in tackles and had two sacks despite missing nearly half their games.

He looked so much like the Bruschi of past seasons that coach Bill Belichick didn’t think much about the stroke.

“I haven’t thought about it in a while,” Belichick said. “It’s been such a gradual, steady thing. It wasn’t like the room was dark and, all of a sudden, the light switch was flipped on.”

Still, linebacker Larry Izzo marveled at what Bruschi accomplished.

“What he’s done this year is amazing,” Izzo said. “The first day he came out to practice you felt and he gave us an extra spark that we were looking for. I don’t know where we’d be without him.”

Bruschi never was gone from the team since he spent time in the weight room and meeting room.

“It’s big just to get him back there when he came back out against Buffalo,” outside linebacker Rosevelt Colvin said, “and his play has continued to get better all season long. You’re hoping he would continue that in the postseason.”

One sign that the talkative Bruschi is back into the routine of being a Patriot is his reluctance, encouraged by Belichick, to discuss injuries. So he said he feels “good” but still described his status for the playoff game against the Jaguars as day-to-day.

And a sign of how far Bruschi has come from his stroke less than a year ago is his ability to laugh when comparing it to his current injury.

“I guess I’ve come back from worse,” he said with a chuckle, “but every injury’s different, whether it’s a stroke or a calf.”

AP-ES-01-05-06 1717EST